Snow to Spring in Sweden

I’m already three months into my exchange at Lund University, Sweden and have had the most incredible time! The day after we arrived, Lund experienced its biggest snowstorm of the Winter so there was no slow adjustment to the cold. Lund is a cute university town in South Sweden, and less than an hour from Copenhagen. It feels very connected, and is also ten minutes away from Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden, but has the charm of a small town, and everything is a ten-minute bike ride away. Swedes are a lot more in touch with the seasons and weather compared to Australia, where we’re spoilt for sun. The last couple of weeks have meant the start of Spring and there are daffodils growing everywhere and we celebrate the small things like the first time we don’t have to wear gloves to bike somewhere. I wanted to experience a contrast to bustling Sydney, and definitely got that- but there’s still plenty of events and culture at Lund. The university regularly hosts events with prominent speakers such as the British ambassador to Sweden, and even Bob Dylan is including Lund in his European tour this month.

Being close to Copenhagen has also made travelling Europe very easy. Within the last few weeks I’ve been in Vilnius, Lithuania and Budapest, Hungary and I’m flying to Edinburgh next week. My favourite trip however would have to be Finish Lapland, staying in a snow resort at -20 degrees, feels like a different world. We rode huskies, went Reindeer sledding and saw the Northern Lights but just being in the extreme cold and meeting the people who live there is such a humbling experience.

Lund is a very international university and hosts a huge number of exchange students. It organised a huge number of activities in the first few weeks so was very easy to meet people, and everyone lives in student accommodation so there are ‘corridor parties’ all the time. The social aspect was honestly a large reason I chose to go on exchange and Lund definitely doesn’t disappoint but what I didn’t expect was to fall in love with the Swedish small town lifestyle. I would recommend exchange, and Lund to anyone, because you’ll have an incredible time, but also to keep an open-mind because living somewhere for a semester means you can experience more than just the student parties!